The Black Rose
by Scarlet-Sword
Summary: A young girl, Diana of Syric, runs away when she finds out her father has gone missing and her mother murdered. Fate brings her to meet a young man, Lucus, who tells her that she is the destined third female knight. He says all of this while she is disgui
1. Ideas

The Black Rose Diana sat in the palace of Syric at a loss for words.  
  
"Are you ok mistress?" A passing by servant asked. Diana stood, nodding absently to the servant, before starting down the hall. She was in a daze, thinking about what had happened. Apparently, her father had left, unannounced, and disappeared to the East. Her mother had died by "accident." Diana's green eyes flashed as she thought about this. There was no way this was true. She clenched her fists and quickened her pace, heading for her room. To her surprise, there was already someone there.  
  
"Diana: A tall man with long grey hair, tied back neatly to reveal his widow's peak, with alarming yellow eyes stood in her doorway.  
  
"How nice of you to enter yourself into my room," She retorted through gritted teeth. The man paid no attenention to the comment.  
  
"Is it true what I am hearing?" His voice mockingly cool and relaxed. "Is milady now orphaned? " The smallest of smiles played his lips.  
  
"What makes you think that?" she inquired tartly. The man shrugged.  
  
"Well you've no mother or father, I'd call that orphaned." He scowled down at her, his eerie yellow eyes connecting with her bright green ones.  
  
"Who says I've no father?" She asked, even though she had just heard the very same thing.  
  
"Your father and mother are dead, what does it take to force that through your thick skull?!" The man's face turned hard, while Diana's remained dead calm.  
  
"You're lying, master Aradalen, you're lying." His eyes flashed behind his half moon spectacles, though the rest of him appeared calm.  
  
"Well, milady," He said, controlling himself again, "Is for the subtle reason to offer you a home."  
  
"But you hate me my lord," Aradalen was clearly loosing his cool.  
  
"I haven't the faintest idea of what you're talking about," He said crisply, "Now, pack and we can be on our way."  
  
"I will do no such thing. I am staying here."  
  
"You are but a mere twelve! There is no possible way you could manage this palace alone!"  
  
"It's better than staying with you!" She snapped, sweeping past him and shutting the door.  
  
"Very well Diana, but you know my offer is always open. I would care for you like a daughter." Yeah, when pigs fly, she thought bitterly. She heard his highly polished black boots click away. Diana let out her breath and turned around to face her room. Her room servant, Salma, was standing there. Diana jumped in surprise.  
  
"How long have you been standing there?" She asked. The dark-skinned maid looked at her with wide eyes.  
  
"Long enough," She grabbed a pair of scissors off the night stand. "And I think I have a solution to your problem. I know you well enough to know that you are probably cooking up a plan right now," The maid, who was actually not much older than Diana, at sixteen, grinned. Diana held her hands up.  
  
"Yes, but I can only think of one thing: To run away and go search for father."  
  
"Your father is in the East, where my land is. My cousin has written me a letter saying that he arrived a week ago, being dragged by guards. The emperor has him prisoner." Diana's father had rescued many people from the emperor that he was using as slaves, including Salma. Most had insisted that they were very good at work, and they needed work, so he offered them work here, and pay. They were shocked, but accepted it all the same.  
  
Diana nodded and sat on the stool, letting Salma cut her hair.  
  
"Your mother was murdered, though it was claimed it was an accident. What do you make of the situation?"  
  
"Well, my only chance to get father back is to go to the emperor. I know I can't defeat his armies. The higher status I have, the better." Salma hacked a few inches off of Diana's long hair.  
  
"Think about it! What have you always wanted to be?" Diana looked at the chocolate brown locks on the floor.  
  
"A dragon keeper," She answered simply. It had always been a dream of hers, but only men can have the job. Salma continued to cut Diana's hair shorter and shorter. A few minutes later she handed Diana a mirror. She looked in the mirror and grinned, catching on to Salma's plan. Her hair was cropped short, about to her earlobes. "I can disguise myself as a boy!" They chimed in usion (although Salma said YOU can disguise yourself as a boy). She ran into the back of the room. "Aradalen was here for a dreadfully long time, so I started sewing these." She came out with an assortment of new clothes. "Try them on."  
  
Diana stepped out, dressed in a green tunic, outlined in gold, a white shirt with full sleeves, brown stockings, and knee high black traveling boots. Her chest was bound flat with a special band. She marveled at herself in the mirror.  
  
"You're a genius Salma!" She laughed. The girls danced around the room in celebration of their new plan.  
  
"All you have to do is sneak out and go to the nearest ship, ok?" Salma handed Diana a cloak and bag with traveling supplies.  
  
"Where are the ships heading?"  
  
"Tortall." 


	2. Ship Mates

Chapter 2: Ship Mates  
  
As Diana bid her maid a final farewell, she thought about what she was about to do. She was going to be a dragon keeper! She grinned. She had always wanted to do this, and always talked about it, though never actually done something. Then she thought about Aradalon. What had he REALLY wanted? Was he the one who had killed her mother? She had thought so, but obviously couldn't prove it. Not yet anyway. As she walked to the ship, a cloaked figure about her size caught her eye. She continued to watch as the person, she couldn't tell if it was male or female. The figure stopped before her, and spoke in a child's voice.  
  
"Excuse me, do you know which of these ships is headed to Tortall?" Diana nodded.  
  
"All of 'em are, but the one leaving nearest is um." She looked around, trying to remember. She SHOULD know this but. The figure drew down it's hood, revealing a concerned face.  
  
"I REALLY need to know." Diana bit her lip. She needed to know too!  
  
"Tortall! Tortall! Leaving in ten minutes!" A man called, multiplying the sound of his voice with his magical gift.  
  
"Oh!" Diana and the stranger chorused. They started to walk towards the ship together.  
  
"So," They said in usion again as they boarded the ship. Diana laughed. The person, obviously feeling more comfortable, took off it's cloak. It was a young man, about her age with reddish blonde hair and blue- green eyes, and freckles.  
  
"Lil- er, Leo of Roserny," He bowed. Diana stared in awe. Roserny was the neighboring kingdom of herself. It was nearer to Tyra, however.  
  
"I didn't know the Baron HAD any boys," She looked puzzled. From what she had heard, in that family was a fifteen year old girl, and one her age. Leo blushed, but said nothing for a while. Finally he inquired:  
  
"So what's your name?" Diana paused, dumbfounded. She couldn't really say Diana. She hadn't though of a boy's name for herself.  
  
"Um, er, well that is, uh," She stumbled, trying to think quickly. She turned scarlet also.  
  
"I won't ask if you don't," Leo says with raised eyebrows. Diana nodded and grinned.  
  
"So, on to mare vague subjects, why are you going to Tortall?"  
  
"Well my father and mother they said- Oh, I can't stand it anymore, I'm just going to tell you!" He pulled her into a corner further away from earshot. "Ok, I'm really Lilian," She sighed and took off her hat, making her reddidsh blond hair tumble down to her waist. Diana burst out laughing. "Well I don't think it's that funny!" Lilian put her hands on her hips. When Diana finally caught her breath, she explained:  
  
"No, it's not that! It's just," She reached under her tunic and shirt and untied the breast band, for her hair was cropped short, "I'm a girl too!" Lily's eyes lit up.  
  
"Oh, Mithros!"  
  
"Would you call it fate?" Diana asked as Lily put her hair back up into her hat. She grinned.  
  
"So, now that we know that, how 'bout we be free in telling each other our stories?" Lily made sure she was set before turning to Diana.  
  
"Ok," Diana took a breath. This was gonna take a while, "I'm Diana of Syric, and my mother had just been murdured, and my father was kidnapped, and taken to the East. I'm going to Tortall to seek the help of the Wildmage, Daine. Or, well I heard she could help me." Lily nodded.  
  
"I told my parents I wanted to become a knight, but I really want to be a Shapeshifter. We can travel together, because I'm looking for the assistance of Numair Salamin. The only reason I'm disguised as a boy is so people won't regognize me. Why are you? I mean, at first people thought there couldn't be lady knights, but the Lioness and Keladry proved them wrong. I'm sure you could do that with dragon keeping, anyway, Daine has a dragon, Skysong."  
  
"Yes, but she isn't really a KEEPER. You have to train forever to become a keeper you have to be trained vigoursly through a service. There aren't many dragon keepers alive. Daine isn't a keeper, she just watches over Skysong. There is a difference. And you know what I've heard? That she doesn't have the right material to be a dragon keeper anyway," The two girls gossiped as if they'd known each other for years. "I have to disguise myself as a boy because if I try to do it as a girl, I will get lots of attention, just like Keladry did when it was said she was to become a page. I was little then, but I still remember." Lily raised her eyebrow's in agreement  
  
"True, But you will reveal your gender after you are successful?"  
  
"Not at all. I have to go to the East to rescue father, and if I reveal myself before that, it too, will get much attention. Then Aradalon might take me before I have the chance to go to the East."  
  
"Aradalon?"  
  
"He is a mage, and I believe it was he who killed my mother and arranged this whole thing about my father. He treid to get me to go with him before I left, but I refused. I fear he would've killed me f I did. Though he claims he would "Care for me like a daughter," I think he just wants to get out whole family out of the way. He started with my older brother, who's a mage and in the king's service, and assigned him to go somewhere. We haven't seen him for two years!" Anger was returning to Diana.  
  
"That's horrible! I haven't any brothers. Only my sister." Lily said glumly.  
  
"You two! What 'er you doing? Only women and children allowed to lounge!"  
  
"We're children too!" Diana pointed out crossly.  
  
"Yer both alone without a guardian. As I see it, ur indepentant, and you can work." He took the both of them by the collars.  
  
"Where are ye going?"  
  
"Nowhere," Lily said tartly.  
  
"Oh, smart one are we? You!" He ponted at a cross Diana. "Stay here, if you want your skin, boy. I'm in charge of you now and I think that the two of you need to learn some manners, and I think I'll start by separating you." He walked off, dragging a squirming Lily behind him. He was much to burly for the girls to fight on their own. But that doesn't mean they didn't try.  
  
"Oy! Put he- him down!" Diana exclaimed, going at him with the nearest thing that could possibly be used as a weapon, which, in this case, was a broom. She hit him in the back of the knees, which had no effect. Lily kicked at him.  
  
"And you wonder how much you can eat before you can't walk anymore," Diana mutters. The man whipped her back.  
  
"I said stay! You filthy little bastard!" Diana scowled, and vowed right there that when she got stronger, she would find this man and beat the living daylights out of him. Lily looked at her with a pained expression.  
  
"Bye," She mouthed.  
  
"Bye," Diana answered soundlessly. 


End file.
